AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

The national spatial planning guidelines and the subsequent legal regulation in the Natural Resources Act and the Environmental Code has been a part of the Swedish planning system for almost 40 years. In the recent years, critics have claimed that the regulations are outdated and does not work the way it was intended. This paper examines closer why it is perceived that the regulations does not work, with a focus on how the national interests are managed in the municipal planning. Why is the national interests not applied in the municipal planning as intended? Is the error in the system or in the implementation of it? The aim of this essay is to study the gap between theory and practice by studying how the land management provisions in the Environmental Code is applied in five selected municipalities. The aim is also to find interesting issues for futher studies of the topic.

The purpose of this report was to identify the current waste management of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste in a few Swedish construction companies, based on the different steps in the waste hierarchy with a focus on waste prevention, reuse and recycle. Additionally, the purpose was to attempt identifying opportunities, obstacles and as well as to propose possible solutions from an environmental perspective. The method used was a qualitative study using interviews conducted through emails and phone with employees occupying positions that could answer this reports questions. The results of this report indicates that waste management of construction and demolition waste has improved, and less waste goes into landfills. The concern is that the overall amount of waste being produced is not decreasing, thus calling for actions preventing the production of waste.

My questions at issue for this report has it´s beginning in the growing problems of thenegative effects of burning fossile fuels and the rapidly growing energyprices.1. Is it possible to design a micro scale powerplant?2. Is it economically interesting for a potential customer to by such a product?The aim with this report is therefor, with the help of design work and calculations, to answerthese questions and to create a platform for building a fully functional micro scale powerplant.The material used in the report is mostly product catalogs from various industries but alsostudy course littrature about steam engines.The result of the report is that it is fully possible to design a fully functional micro scalepower plant.

AbstractIn 1998 the Swedish legislation was sharpened, and active educationalists were legally bound to report any suspicion of child maltreatment. Nevertheless, there are a number of unrecorded cases of maltreated children, and research reveals that less than half of these children are reported to social services (Olsson, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to illustrate the problems with the mandatory reports in schools, as well as to study how educationalists proceed when they suspect that a child is maltreated. The method consisted of semi-structured interviews with five educationalists. The results revealed complex problems regarding educationalists mandatory reports.

This thesis analyzes the effects of different fertilization strategies on forest management at Holmen Skog in Umeå district. Harvesting volumes, net present values and fertilization intensity are presented for each fertilization scenario. The planning reserve (percentage area older than minimum final felling age) was also analyzed in this study.The thesis covers the analysis of five different fertilization scenarios, varying in fertilization intensity, from no fertilization at all, to fertilization at every harvesting operation (thinning or final felling). A sub-study was also carried out so the reader in detail can see how the different fertilization scenarios affect individual forest stands of different nature. The analysis has been done with the planning tool PlanWise, which is an application of the Heureka analysis and planning system.

AbstractIn the fall of 2003 a project was started in the Swedish building sector that is called BASTA (the building sectors’ termination of especially harmful substances). The project is operated by the building companies NCC, Skanska, PEAB and JM, the Swedish Building Industry and the Swedish Environmental Institute IVL. The purpose of the project is to create a common environmental assessment system for the entire building industry and with the help of this system phase out the use of especially harmful properties from building products.In a large sense BASTA works like this; On the BASTA web site there is a database, to which a supplier can register the company and the company’s products. Only those products with a substance content that fulfil the demands of the BASTA system, is to be registered. As it is the supplier himself that carries out the registration of the company and the company’s products to the system, the BASTA-organisation annually controls that the companies that are registered in the database, fulfils BASTA’s demands.Since NCC is one of the companies that operates BASTA, BASTA is probably going to be the environmental assessment system that is recommended for the company in the future.

First-year students at Linköping University have developed a prototype that graphically visualizes a medical record in a new way. The customer of that project was the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Linköping University. They now want a usability evaluation to be performed of the prototype. The prototype is to be used by employees in the public health care and is supposed to be used on a small portable unit with a multi-touch interface. For this reason the prototype will be used as a complement to existing systems when the users work near the patients.

Sustainable development is a concept that has been interpreted in a multitude of ways in different contexts. This essay argues that the discourse of "ecological modernization" has strongly influenced the way in which the concept of ?sustainability? has been constructed in Swedish environmental policy. This interpretation of the concept of sustainability offers the possibility of combining economic growth with ecological sustainability which stands in contrast to the assumptions of Deep Ecology and Green Theory. The aim of this essay is to explore how the concept of sustainability is being formulated in environmental policy both on a national level and in the city of Malmö.Considering these issues in a specific context, this essay focuses on city planning that is as an important instrument to promote urban sustainability both on national and local levels.

When it comes to the priority of a project proposal, a variety of factors is affecting theoutcome. In the municipal sector, factors of non- economic nature appears to be particularlyimportant when the organization is not intended to be profit-making.This study's research question is What problems can occur around an energy-efficiencyproject proposal in a municipal organization? The purpose of this study is to gainunderstanding of what possible problems an energy efficiency project proposal mayencounter, in the municipal implementation process as well as the problems of a changingownership can bring.To conduct this study, the method was qualitative in nature. We have cooperated withVarberg Energi AB and Varberg kommun, which has stood as respondents for the empiricalbasis of the study. In this study, we have conducted four personal interviews.In this study, we have found that there may be several problematic factors associated with anenergy-efficiency project proposal in a municipal organization.

In my degree project I have focused on how to make it easier for ambulance personnel to remove a motorcycle helmet after an accident. During my research I have interviewed ambulance personnel from different cities and a trauma surgeon to get a better understanding of how they work today and the problems they experience. Some of the problem areas are that you need a lot of force to remove the helmet, that the padding catches the ears and that the chin guard catches the face. Since ambulance personnel always assume that there is a neck injury after an accident, all these problems make it difficult to remove the helmet safely.The result is a motorcycle helmet with a focus on safe removal after an accident, to reduce the risk of worsening a neck injury. The solution suggested is that a small part of the back of the helmet is detachable, to make the opening larger.

Ångermanland has at the last five years lost 420 hockey players. This is a qualitative study that focus on investigating the main problems of dropouts among young hockey players and how ice hockey associations in Ångermanland act to find solutions to the problem. The main questions of the study are: How can the dropout problems in Ångermanland be understood or explained in terms of youth operators' perspective and what are the potential strategies that the ice hockey associations are using to deal with the dropout problem and what approaches to youth hockey is reflected in the youth operators' statements? The study was based on semi-structure interviews with 6 different ice hockey sports clubs in Ångermanland. The results showed that the leadership programs ought to be more educational, and more oriented toward understanding the children instead of mainly technical learning objectives about how to shoot, dribble, and skate.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a topic that is becoming increasingly important in today's society. CSR is a concept whereby companies voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns both in their business but also in interaction with their stakeholders. The society of today sets high expectations for how companies take their social responsibilities, especially in industries where the risks to individuals and the environment are high. In this study, we tried to answer the following questions; what kind of responsibility do companies in the plastics and chemicals industry claim to take and why might this be due? What differences exist between the investigated companies in the industry and what may these differences be rooted in? The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the interest in working on sustainability in the plastics and chemicals industry.

As a company it is required to work with strategies to minimize costs such as packaging and logistic costs. The increased market of industrial produced wooden buildings results that the time and the cost which the packaging of prefabricated building elements consume, is experienced to be in greater need of development than before and demands a better solution. The aim with this dissertation was to discover how the development of the handling of the packaging can improve the packaging process. The goal was to present improvement proposals for a simplified and thereby a more efficient production in time and cost perspective.The packaging process which includes packaging, handling, storage and transport were studied. Interviews were made with participants from the market for manufacturers of wooden houses and a case study was made at the company A-hus.

Bakgrund:Miljöredovisningen är ett sätt för företagen att beskriva sitt miljöarbete. Den har fått allt större betydelse för företagen i takt med att miljöfrågorna blivit allt viktigare hos intressenter och allmänheten. Det gäller för företagen att visa att man tar ett miljö- och samhällsansvar för att skapa trovärdighet och förtroende i samhället.  Syfte:                                 Att ge läsaren en bild över hur och varför miljöredovisningen ser ut som den gör och vad företagen, som associeras med betydande miljöpåverkan, väljer att fokusera på i sina miljöredovisningar. Metod:                              En kvalitativ studie som grundar sig i legitimitetsteorin och institutionell teori har utförts. Vi har undersökt litteratur, vetenskapliga artiklar, miljöredovisningar samt fört intervjuer med personer som har behörig kompetens.  Slutsats:                            Studien visar på hur viktig miljöredovisningen är för företagen som associeras med betydande miljöpåverkan.